My Kitchen Makeover Featuring Floating Live-Edge Shelves

A few days ago we finished a major part of our kitchen upgrade when we installed new open shelves to take the place of one of the cabinets. I was really nervous about putting up these shelves, because the floating shelf hardware required lots of exact measurements and drilling, and I was afraid I’d screw up and the shelves would be totally ruined forever. So after I employed my usual helpful tactic of procrastination, eventually we got down to the installation. It was tricky, and we had to solve some problems, but we made it through. And the result is totally worth it! I really love our new shelves.

The transformation is much more dramatic with a little reminder of the ugliness before, though.
And this is what it looked like after we took down the upper cabinet and painted the other remaining cabinets.
And finally, the after! It doesn’t even look like the same room.
I changed my mind about the top plant. The red-leaved peperomia is much better than the green spikey guy I had up there at first.

The wood is live-edge alder that we picked out and had finished at Salvage Works (they were great to work with, and did a wonderful job). To hang these shelves we used these Dolle Strongfix floating shelf brackets. I used three per shelf, attached to studs in the wall, and they seem like they’ll be plenty sturdy. The tricky part was drilling the holes in the walls and the shelves. I had to buy a corded drill (this one by Ridgid), because my cordless one wasn’t up to the task. And even with the powerful drill (Steven compared me to Tim Taylor when I admired its power a little too much), I did make the motor smoke when I drilled too far into the wood without emptying out the wood shavings. We let the motor cool down overnight, got the drill bit unstuck by turning it by hand with pliers, and finished drilling the next morning.

Our kitchen remodel is this close to being done. We’ve painted the walls and cabinets, replaced the hardware, added open shelving, and refinished our floors. So why aren’t we finished? Well, because of a little detail I cropped out. The mouldings, or lack thereof.
While you’re admiring the lovely vintage refinished wood that has replaced the vinyl fake tile, you might notice the nasty situation along the bottom of the wall. That’s glue left over from the vinyl that was glued around the room and under the cabinets as a baseboard. So I’m in the middle of covering that all up with mouldings, and then we’ll be done. Of course it’s taking way longer than I expected, but I’m excited that I’m so close to being finished!

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